See I’ve spent the last couple days watching one of Netflix’s newest original series, Mindhunter, which follows two late ’70s FBI Behavioral Science Unit agents as they attempt to delve into the psyches of the nation’s most heinous criminals. Produced by David Fincher and starring Jonathan Groff, whose voice who might recognize from Hamilton (King George) and Frozen (Kristoff), and Holt McCallany, who you’ll recognize from something or other, the series’ first season explores the depths of human depravity and the ripples it creates in the lives of those around the edge of the pit.

The material this show covers is pretty inherently interesting. The team’s interviews with the killers are wonderfully chilling but it was seeing our “good guys” slowly start to change as a result of those interviews that was the icing on the cake for me.

I can’t really sit here and tell you Mindhunter is necessarily a “fun” show, but man is it fascinating. As the provisionally accepted psychology minor that I am, I was sold on watching this one the minute I heard the premise. And as a fan of Seven, Fight Club and House of Cards (though perhaps not in light of recent events) I was sold the minute I heard Fincher’s name was attached to the project. I came in with high expectations and, for the most part, Mindhunter met them.

For me, this show is almost entirely about Agent Holden Ford (Groff) and his descent into the mental realms of monsters. Fellow FBI Agent Bill Tench (McCallany), Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), a psychology professor brought on by the team, and Ford’s girlfriend Debbie Mitford (Hannah Gross), as well as all the other tertiary characters are just window dressing, albeit well acted and important window dressing. While they all serve to further the plot in their own ways, they do so in direct service of Ford’s character arc.

And what a fascinating arc it is! As you might expect, his proximity the the nation’s most prominent violent killers affects him drastically, but first manifests itself as a type of sick fascination, an all-consuming hunger to understand why they did what they did. As the show progresses, Ford develops a strange sympathy for the devils he’s speaking with and a penchant for bending the rules of conventional interrogation, even developing an uneasy “friendship” with Ed Kemper, one of the show’s recurring killers.

This sounds great right? It’s well written and acted and it’s intellectually streaming, what’s not to like? Two words: the ending.

I think it might be more accurate to view Netflix’s full season releases as extended films than actual TV shows. By shifting the blame of time commitment to the eager and committed audience, showrunners can essentially release ten hour movies without any of the backlash I’m sure such a project would accrue. I, as one of Netflix’s loyal binge-watching minions, have no problem with this approach as it allows for level of character development that just aren’t possible on the silver screen.

Given the cinematic-universe-or-bust nature of recent blockbusters, I’ve become accustomed to movies ending in an open-ended fashion. I’m not saying I like it, but lately it’s been the only thing on the menu. What I won’t stomach, however, is a ten hour series ending in a cliffhanger.

I mean what the hell? As soon as episode ten came to a close, the bottom of the screen flashed “Season Two now available.” Eager to see what happened next and positive that wouldn’t actually be where the show left things, I hastily clicked the button and found myself watching an episode of Stranger Things. It was an advertisement for another show! At this point I was feeling about as incredibly incredulous and upon some angry Googling I found that season two won’t even begin filming until next year.

This is such a shame because Sonny Valicenti’s ADT Serviceman character was shaping up to be a truly compelling “adversary” for Holden and company just as the season concluded. The heavy-handedness with which the showrunners decided to set up a second season instead of offering the audience any real closure really disappointed me, if only because of how invested in the plot I had become by the final episode.

I still think Mindhunter is a worthwhile watch for it’s multidimensional characters and gripping psychology, but I’ll remember it with bitterness because of its end. I’m not saying I won’t eat up season two when it lands but for now I’ve got some serious serial killer blue balls. If anything, it’s probably fair to chalk up this up to recent trends in film but just because something’s trendy doesn’t mean it’s excusable.

Nick Smith is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at nsmith@cornellsun.com.

]]>http://cornellsun.com/2017/12/12/mindhunter-drove-me-crazy/feed/0Grey’s Anatomy, Back Tonight, Faces Mixed Expectationshttp://cornellsun.com/2017/09/28/greys-anatomy-back-tonight-faces-mixed-expectations/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
http://cornellsun.com/2017/09/28/greys-anatomy-back-tonight-faces-mixed-expectations/#respondThu, 28 Sep 2017 16:23:30 +0000http://cornellsun.com/?p=2129844A fair warning — this article doesn’t hold back any spoilers. If you’re not prepared to read about some of the biggest shocks of the show, this is your chance to turn back.

There is nothing I hate more than when producers make terrible sequels to original movies or when TV shows drag on too long. Mean Girls2 and 3? Terrible. The five millionth Bring It On movie? Weak. It’s sad. I love the original movie or series, and then am disappointed with the continuation. I wish that the producers stopped while they were ahead.

Yet, I never want Grey’s Anatomy to end. Season 14 comes back tonight, and I could not be more excited. I first started watching Grey’s in high school but never really got into it. Freshman year of Cornell, I got really sick and had to miss nine weeks of school. Sitting in the hospital bed, I decided to pick up Grey’s. It just felt fitting. I wanted to learn more about hospitals and being sick. Given that I am putting my science requirements off until senior year, Grey’s was naturally the best way to learn biology.

I was also drawn to Grey’s because there was so much there. Eleven seasons were already out when I began, and I had so much time. Catching up on Grey’s became my project.

It took me over a year to catch up, and I was able to watch season 13 weekly. Being so late to the Grey’s phenomenon, I already knew a lot of what would happen. Even though I knew certain characters would die, I wanted to see it for myself. It sucked, I cried, but I still watched the next episode. I was so attached to these characters, and they taught me so much when I was sick. I could not give up on them.

A lot of people around campus disagree, however. Eliza Hering ’20 told me that, “once Lexi and Mark died, it was really hard for me to emotionally cope. I tried to carry on. Once Derek died, I completely stopped watching. It was too hard. All of my favorite characters were gone.” Hering saw no reason to watch a show full of characters she did not know. Similarly, Celia Berman ’20 explained how she got tired of the show after nine seasons, and “especially since I heard that Derek died, I stopped. I usually don’t like it when they kill of main characters and could not bear to watch him go.”

Grey’s is still watched my many on campus, just not on time. Mara Basich-Pease ’19 watched all of Grey’s during her freshman year at Cornell. She explained that she “continued after Derek died, but hated that I could not binge-watch it anymore and had to wait a week between each episode. I lost interest during the week. It was annoying to watch it on the ABC app instead of Netflix because of the ads.” Sara Martin ’20 agreed completely: “I only watch when it eventually gets posted on Netflix. So I still haven’t seen Season 13, I plan to watch it, though I am still really mad about Derek’s death.” It seems that if Grey’s was posted on Netflix the week it came out, or even like House of Cards, the entire season at once, more people would watch it.

Yet, Grey’s still has its regular weekly viewers here on Cornell’s campus. Meredith Anderer ’20 reasoned “I made it this far. Even though I think it’s shitty now, I can’t stop watching. I’m committed.” Anderer feels like she has to continue watching, even if she is not intrigued by the plot. Caroline Markowitz ’18 also still watches Grey’s, yet, had no idea it was coming back until I told her: “Wait it’s coming back?!! I was kinda ready for it to be over but I can’t not watch I’ve been watching since eighth grade!” Many fans feel a commitment to the show.

Grey’s early seasons are so popular, but not their later seasons. In its heyday, Grey’s was great for a number of reasons. Firstly, the characters. Viewers grew to see the characters as their family, and people that loved and wanted to succeed. It became really hard for Grey’s fans to continue watching when all of their favorite characters besides Meredith were gone. Secondly, the riveting plots. Grey’s was always exhilarating, and had lots of mini-plots going on with patients with overarching plots for the hospital and characters. Everyone was hooked.

I am one of the few people I know that actually watched Season 13 and plans to watch Season 14. I believe that Shonda Rhimes worked to truly make last season different. Critics of Grey’s complain that every episode is more or less the same, but I believe that last season changed. The episode titled “You Can Look (But You’d Better Not Touch)” that premiered on January 26, 2017 was fantastic. Bailey, Arizona and Jo drive to a maximum security prison to work with a pregnant inmate. The episode is emotional, and exquisitely directed by Jann Turner. None of the episode occurs inside Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, or even includes Meredith. A lot of last season was different, including Meredith’s love interest.

Derek, Christina, Mark, George, Lexi and many of our favorite characters are no longer a part of the show. Therefore, there are millions of less viewers than there used to be. However, I still believe that “Grey’s Anatomy” is worth watching and it will be interesting to see what happens tonight when Season 14 premieres!

Becky Frank is a Junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at bfrank@cornellsun.com.

]]>http://cornellsun.com/2017/09/28/greys-anatomy-back-tonight-faces-mixed-expectations/feed/0The Defenders Meets the Hypehttp://cornellsun.com/2017/08/28/the-defenders-meets-the-hype/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
http://cornellsun.com/2017/08/28/the-defenders-meets-the-hype/#respondTue, 29 Aug 2017 02:38:57 +0000http://cornellsun.com/?p=1996272The Defenders, like the four superheroes who make up its name, is ambitious and flawed, yet overall entertaining. Surprisingly, it truly does feel like the worlds-colliding TV show it was billed as, as well as feeling fresh and original. Since 2012, viewers have seen Avengers assemble, CW shows crossover, X-Men band together, will soon witness the Justice League unite, and thus the mere prospect of seeing another spandexed group of individuals in the same room (or in The Defenders case: a chinese restaurant) does not excite as it used to. Nonetheless, seeing these heroes from all over New York City set aside their differences to sacrifice for the collective and greater good is still exciting. It is a gripping series that services each individual’s character arc and adds another dimension to the gritty, street level noir setting of New York. It operates on a smaller, darker and more personal scale, and, although there are no aliens flying out of the sky this time to threaten the Earth, the stakes still feel high.

Taking place a few months after Daredevil season 2 and Iron Fist’s first season, the first few episodes of The Defenders focus on each individual character in their separate sectors of New York. Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) has retired from being the “Devil of Hell’s Kitchen” and begrudgingly continues his work as a lawyer, though he still itches to be a vigilante again. Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) has quit being a private investigator and spends her days (and mornings) drinking at bars. Luke Cage (Mike Colter) is released from prison and goes back to Harlem and wrestles with his newfound fame for having defeated the villainous Cottonmouth. Danny Rand/Iron Fist (Finn Jones) and friend Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick) are chasing down murderous Hand ninjas all across the world with no avail. All of these characters seem stuck and unable to move forward with their individual lives, and express moments of frustration at their current state.

Showing the heroes broken and somber is an interesting way to start of the series. It attempts to make clear that these characters have no business in resuming superhero work again, much less team up with each other. Yet it is Murdock, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist’s inability to think about anything other than their own present problems that makes their ultimate unification all the more rewarding. As they separately observe and analyze strange happenings going on in New York, they realize that the cases they were exploring are all connected to the Hand, a shadowy organization led by the enigmatic Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver) who has plans to destroy New York.

Despite the excitement of the four heroes banding together to defeat Alexandra and the Hand, their team-up occurs much too late in the series. Past Netflix series were simultaneously blessed and cursed with thirteen episode orders; while this gave more time for the audience to see characters develop and grow, unfortunately it meant that a seven or eight episode plot had to be painfully stretched to fill the season. The Defenders feels like the same problems but on a smaller scale, and would have better benefited from a faster pace. The show never really clicks or comes together until the heroes do, which occurs in the middle of the third episode. The hour-long episodes are often disjointed, as those 60 minutes have to be shared with all the characters. Just as one character’s story thread gets interesting, it switches to the next.

Yet what the show suffers for in pacing, it gains from its stellar characters. Supporting cast from all prior shows make mostly glorified cameos here, although it is rewarding to finally see them interact with each other. Weaver’s Alexandra is a cool and calculating villain that, unlike Daredevil’s Kingpin or Jessica Jones Kilgrave, never breaks under pressure. She always assumes and acts as if she is in control. There is an aura of mystery around her, despite her charisma and willingness to be a public villain. Elektra (Élodie Yung) makes a return, resurrected as a weapon by the Hand, though she acts as more of a killing machine and is devoid of personality for most of the season. Jones’ Iron Fist/Danny Rand remains the show’s weakest link (and much of the series revolves around him as a central plot point). His whininess and zeal is curtailed and tempered by the other three members, who are more experienced. As The Defenders focuses on the Hand, the show services Murdock and Cage’s character arcs better, and so seeing their mystical reality collide with Jones and Cage’s more grounded background provides both tension and humor. Jones and Cage are the audience’s foothold in the world and have a smaller stakes; Jones is trying to help one family who is suffering from the Hand while Cage wants to avenge a young boy from Harlem who was killed by them. They have no desire to take down a ninja organization and their incredulity clashes with Jones and Murdock who realize the citywide implications of the Hand’s plan. As a team, they frequently bicker and argue, but eventually learn to accept each other, idiosyncrasies and all. Likewise, some of the best chemistry occurs when the team splits in pairs, with Cage and Rand slowly fostering a mentor-student relationship while Murdock and Jones act like siblings who annoy each other and care for each other deep down, but will never admit it.

A big theme of the show is the importance of “moving on.” As much as the four heroes would like to deny it, once they enter into each other’s lives, they realize that they need each other to truly move forward individually. In a beautifully-choreographed hallway fight and the subsequent aftermath in a chinese restaurant, Murdock’s pragmatism, Jones’s snark, Cage’s care and Rand’s ambition all collide and the four realize that they can learn from each other.

The unity displayed by the heroes is a stark contrast to the Hand. The Hand is united over a cause and believe that the ultimate end justifies the means, even if it means members must be sacrificed or killed. Yet the Defenders never let their goal eclipse their care for each other. They might save New York, but themselves become someone not worth saving in the process. In addition, the Hand wishes to simply kill New York in order to begin anew, but the Defenders show that to quit in order to receive a new beginning is a lazy way out. True transformation and renewal begins when one is willing to wrestle and correct one’s vices and problems, rather than simply running away.

Yet for all the philosophical themes The Defenders explores, it still delivers brutal and adrenaline-pumping action sequences. The fights play out like a battle royale and a circuit of different fighting styles are on display. Cage’s kung-fu has a mystic twist as decimates opponents with his glowing punch. Rand is much more acrobatic in contrast and utilizes a dizzying array of boxer-like jabs and powerful hits from his billy club. Cage simply bulldozes through his opponents, with machine gun fire and swords bouncing off his skin like Nerf darts. Jones likewise utilizes brute strength, throwing everything from cars to couches at her opponents, humorously asking her teammates “am I the only one who doesn’t know karate?” As with all Netflix Defender shows, most if not all of the fight scenes take place in the dark and, because there are so many assailants on screen at a time, it can be confusing to trace who is punching who.

“You four. The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, the smart detective, the righteous ex-con, and the kid with the glowing fist… The war for New York is here. So get your shit together.”

Spoken by Daredvil’s mentor Stick (Scott Glenn), this phrase is hardly a rallying cry but it accurately summarizes why the Defenders come together in the first place. If it were up to the characters, they would walk away from the responsibility of fighting the Hand. Yet they are bound by something greater than their own selfish ambitions: their love for their city. As much as Alexandra believed that if the Defenders had more connections they could be easily broken, they prove that those connections made them stronger.

Zachary Lee is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at zjl4@cornell.edu

]]>http://cornellsun.com/2017/08/28/the-defenders-meets-the-hype/feed/0Laughing at Myself in Silicon Valleyhttp://cornellsun.com/2017/04/28/laughing-at-myself-in-silicon-valley/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
http://cornellsun.com/2017/04/28/laughing-at-myself-in-silicon-valley/#commentsFri, 28 Apr 2017 18:04:28 +0000http://cornellsun.com/?p=1438279As a native of the place, I have an interesting relationship with HBO’s comedy show Silicon Valley. If it were to lionize the tech industry that gives my hometown it’s name, I would probably not like it very much, but the show’s writers choose to take the route of a somewhat affectionate parody instead. As such, it’s always a bit hard to tell whether the show is celebrating the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship that the Valley likes to think it has, or offering a serious critique of those ideas.

For the past three seasons, Silicon Valley has followed the misadventures of fictional startup company Pied Piper, which uses a black box compression algorithm to achieve unprecedented data storage capacity and video streaming quality. Pied Piper is never allowed to experience success for more than two episodes because of the incompetency of its management, or bad luck, which forms the basis of the show’s humor. At its core, Silicon Valley is very formulaic: something that shakes everything up happens at the start of the season, there’s a two-episode cycle of good and bad fortune and by the end of the season everything resets and no progress is made. But, given that Silicon Valley is a sitcom where continuity or plot isn’t the point, this may not be a serious issue.

That said, with the new fourth season of Silicon Valley beginning to air, I found myself intrigued by the seemingly mandatory opening shake-up of the first episode. Having spent three seasons with the same cast of characters comprising Pied Piper, the beginning of this season finds the CEO, Richard, leaving the team. Pied Piper has become a video streaming service, and Richard wants to dream bigger with the algorithm he created. Don’t worry — the same central cast from before will undoubtedly remain the focus of the show.

On my end, I found Richard’s motivation for leaving the team to be… interesting. When explaining what he hopes to accomplish with his algorithm, Richard claims he wants to create a “New Internet.” What exactly does this mean? The plan is to use the Pied Piper algorithm to connect and pool the processing power of all the computing devices around the world, which will lead to an explosion of the human potential for achievement and make all information “free,” everywhere, forever, somehow.

My reaction to the pitch, as presented in the show, was one of total bewilderment. I had no idea if I was supposed to be taking Richard seriously or not. On face value, the idea sounded completely ridiculous, but the show didn’t do anything to explicitly signal that it was aware of the pitch’s absurdity; there are no deadpan quips about Richard’s unbelievable naiveté. Then again, it’s still possible that the show is self-aware: after he gives the pitch, Richard is heartily congratulated by a known narcissist. This lack of clarity of intent is confusing and detrimental to the show’s plot.

Nonetheless, even if Silicon Valley were to play the tech utopia idea straight, it would still make a lot of fun of the idea along the way. But, it also means that the humor and satire would only bite so deep in contrast to subversion, which would mock the fundamental idea.

What’s interesting is that the show has mocked the concept of tech utopia in the past: the motto of Hooli, the fictional, soulless tech giant stand-in is, “Making the World a Better Place.” This line gets run into the ground over the course of the first season, until it becomes as meaningless to the ear as it is on paper. Hooli doesn’t care about making the world a better anything, they just want to make more money. But Silicon Valley could still be depicting Richard’s altruistic intentions sincerely; just because Hooli is evil doesn’t mean that Richard’s company necessarily is. The show attempts to draw a distinction between what is sees as the amoral greed of mega-corporations and the philanthropic entrepreneurship of true innovators.

I hope the show is not doing this, because that distinction is nonsense. One of the more unpleasant refrains in popular media and the news cycle is the idea that the tech innovators in California are going to save us from our political situation or environmental catastrophes. Silicon Valley is at its best when it goes after this mythology. It doesn’t have to get into a serious critique of why capitalism will not save us or how the tech industry’s leaders are ineffectual in their resistance, at best, and actively complicit in the current administration’s mess, at worst. It just has to show that it doesn’t make sense to be optimistic about the tech industry because the people in it are fundamentally and comedically flawed, and that it makes more sense to laugh at them instead.

Silicon Valley’s comedic hit rate is reasonably high and I’ll forgive the show for engaging in some sentimentality over innovation, which makes me cringe. A lot of the humor isn’t wrapped up in the broader context of the show’s setting, but instead in the mechanics of well-written, humorous dialogue and comedic delivery. The first episode of the new season was filled with this, and I found myself satisfied on that front.

Silicon Valley never gets too political, but that’s probably a good thing. Not everyone shares my views on the area, but as long as you can laugh at yourself, anyone from the Silicon Valley can find something funny in Silicon Valley.

Albert Chu is a junior in the College of Engineering. He can be reached at ac2369@cornell.edu.

]]>http://cornellsun.com/2017/04/28/laughing-at-myself-in-silicon-valley/feed/1The Political Jokes in Veep Are More Realistic Nowhttp://cornellsun.com/2017/04/23/the-political-jokes-in-veep-are-more-realistic-now/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
http://cornellsun.com/2017/04/23/the-political-jokes-in-veep-are-more-realistic-now/#respondSun, 23 Apr 2017 22:21:21 +0000http://cornellsun.com/?p=1415584Almost every Grey’s Anatomy fan I know went through the “I’m going to be a surgeon” phase. Despite hating every one of my science courses and getting a 2 on AP Bio, I did too. However, Veep pushed me into a more realistic phase: to work in politics or government. I wanted to work on the Hill in D.C. like Vice President Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). I thought her chief of staff Amy Brookheimer (Anna Chlumsky) was absolutely one of the coolest, funniest and most competent people ever.

The best way that I can describe Veep is as a fantastic combination of House of Cards and Modern Family. It is perfectly political and serious while also absolutely hilarious.

Season 6 is taking a turn in a new direction. All of the key characters have returned, but have gone their separate ways. They are no longer all in Selina Meyer’s office. Dan is a reporter for CBS, Amy is working on her fiance’s campaign, Mike is a stay-at-home dad and so on. This is also the first season where Selina is not either Vice-President or President of the United States. She holds no position besides former-President, and the season opens with her first public interview since the historic house vote that lost her the presidency.

Gary Walsh, king of the “Leviathan” bag is still right by Selina’s side. I do not know how to put into words how funny Gary is. Everything he does continues to make me actually laugh out loud while watching the show. One thing about watching the show for a sixth season is that I feel like I know the characters so well. Half of the times I laugh at (and not with) Gary are because I know so much about Gary’s life. (Including that he apparently attended Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration)

While a lot of the jokes are rather racist and vulgar, Veep does a great job with keeping up with modern-day trends. The show jokes about Uber and Twitter, while also touching on transgender issues. Selina starts the Meyer Fund for Adult Literacy … and AIDS. As the first female President, she is struggling to stay relevant. Selina discusses her desire to run for President again, to the utter horror of just about everyone around her.

HBO created a number of websites that go along with the show this season. These include a site for the Meyer’s Fund and for Congressman Jonah Ryan (Timothy Simons). I didn’t donate to the Meyer Fund, but I took the online literacy test! The test hilariously included one question: “Do you know how to read?” Answering yes, the test therefore congratulated me for being literate. Thank you Selina! On the Congressman’s site, a quote in italics above Jonah’s tall, shaven, annoying head is “I believe you can change people’s lives until you change their minds.” Both of these sites include so many details and jokes that are not included on the show. It is an awesome way to connect viewers beyond the television.

This season is different, and I like it. Critics of old seasons said every episode’s storyline was too similar. Everything is changing now that Selina is no longer in office. She has new issues, first and foremost being that she is rather irrelevant.

I will say, however, that I think that some of the jokes are becoming more and more realistic given our current president. Some of Selena’s statements that were written as a complete joke are not as far-fetched anymore.

Becky Frank is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at rnf33@cornell.edu.

]]>http://cornellsun.com/2017/04/23/the-political-jokes-in-veep-are-more-realistic-now/feed/0Iron Fist Is Surprisingly Softhttp://cornellsun.com/2017/03/27/iron-fist-is-surprisingly-soft/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
http://cornellsun.com/2017/03/27/iron-fist-is-surprisingly-soft/#commentsTue, 28 Mar 2017 00:16:53 +0000http://cornellsun.com/?p=1281694Every time I watch an action movie I walk out with delusions of grandeur. I’ve been a kung fu master without a shred a discipline, a fearsome swordsman without a blade and a lethal sharpshooter without a day of training. Rocky turned every mirror into a fierce boxing opponent and the top of every staircase into the end of an epic training montage. Gladiator turned every oblong cylinder I could find into a sword and every room into a colosseum. Saving Private Ryan turned literally every object into a gun — and I mean that! I used to pretend to shoot “enemies” with my cat (he didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I did).

What I’m trying to say is that I’m a sucker for good action. Give me fists, swords (*cough* lightsabers *cough*) or guns — I can forget about following the plot, disregard character development and gloss over glaring imperfections. That said, it’s nice when I don’t have to.

Every so often a film (or show, in this case) comes along that delivers good action AND survives a critical microscope. Sadly, Marvel’s Netflix exclusive Iron Fist isn’t one of those cases.

The problem starts right at the top, with the casting of Finn Jones as Danny Rand, the Iron Fist. You might know Jones from his role as Loras Tyrell in Game of Thrones. After watching Iron Fist, it seems Jones is more suited to the beautiful and graceful type roles like Ser Loras, not portraying a “living weapon.”

When I first heard about Iron Fist’s Netflix adaptation, I was excited! Like I said, I’m a big fan of action, and what’s cooler than beating the crap out of armed baddies with nothing but your own magical fist? (Answer: literally nothing; that’s the coolest thing ever.)

Unfortunately, I just can’t get my head around Jones in this role. I know that comparatively, Jones’ muscles make mine look like lukewarm mashed potatoes, but since we live in a world with action heroes like Dwayne Johnson and Hugh Jackman, it’s hard to accept an “Iron Fist” that wouldn’t weigh 200 pounds soaking wet. Jones’ speech and demeanor deepen this hole. He doesn’t come across as someone who spent years training with monks to be the pinnacle of fighting prowess.

On the topic of softness, Iron Fist largely follows two storylines: Rand’s life as the Iron Fist trying to destroy the Hand, the Netflix universe’s main bad guys, and his acclimation to normal life being involved in his father’s corporation. Unfortunately, the series spends way too much time on the latter. So often I found myself wanting another kickass action (and some of the action scenes are just that) scene instead of a boring jargon-filled office scene.

Additionally, this series is extremely stretched out. It would’ve been a lot stronger if it took place over half as many episodes. So many story arcs, that I’ll refrain from mentioning for the sake of keeping things spoiler free, felt intentionally pulling to their limit just for the sake of extending the show’s runtime, with needless twists and turns culminating in unsatisfying conclusions.

I think it’s fair to compare this show to the comic book web series of years past, like Jessica Jones and Arrow. Sadly, it just doesn’t stack up. Iron Fist is Daredevil without the novelty, Luke Cage without the grit and The Flash without the emotion.

Recurring characters like Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple and Madame Gao are sure to excite long-time Marvel Netflix and comic fans, but the new series doesn’t offer much in the way of new memorable characters apart from Colleen Wing and Joy Meachum, the two leading ladies. Played by Jessica Henwick and Jessica Stroup, respectively, the new love interest and old childhood friend are lively additions to the universe.

In the end, fans of the Marvel Netflix universe have probably either watched, started watching or queued up Iron Fist, and that’s fair — it’s a necessary set-up for the Defenders (which, despite my trepidations about this show, I think is still gonna be epic). Iron Fist isn’t great, but if you’re looking for a show to power through on a rainy day, it’s not a bad option.

Nick Smith is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at nks53@cornell.edu.

]]>http://cornellsun.com/2017/03/27/iron-fist-is-surprisingly-soft/feed/1Nickelodeon Tries to Join the Tolerance Bandwagon — and Fails Spectacularlyhttp://cornellsun.com/2017/03/22/nickelodeon-tries-to-join-the-tolerance-bandwagon-and-fails-spectacularly/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
http://cornellsun.com/2017/03/22/nickelodeon-tries-to-join-the-tolerance-bandwagon-and-fails-spectacularly/#respondThu, 23 Mar 2017 03:38:16 +0000http://cornellsun.com/?p=1255399Tolerance. Prejudice. These two concepts are on everybody’s minds nowadays. Racial, ethnic, political and religious tensions are flaring around the world — including in our own country. It’s an uncertain time for children to grow up in, and some aren’t learning about the importance of coexisting with others who differ from themselves. That’s where several media studios are stepping up. Disney’s Zootopia is the best example I can think of, giving both kids and adults a nuanced fable about prejudice that actually relates to the real world. Of course, other movies and shows carry a similar moral and, while they may not be as detailed, they still manage to impart the right idea to the audience.

And then there’s Nickelodeon’s new show, Bunsen is a Beast.

I cannot remember the last time I was so frustrated, so angered, by a cartoon. I spoke briefly about its crossover with Fairly Oddparents in my last column, but oh boy do I have strong words for the show on its own. In short, it wants to do what Zootopia did and focus on prejudice and tolerance. At the same time, it doesn’t want to do what Zootopia did and actually take the time to think about the premise, the conflicts that are being raised or how people actually act in real life. The result is a mess that actually ends up sending the opposite message!

Before I delve in, though, I want to preemptively counter an argument I KNOW is going to appear in the comments: “It’s just a cartoon! It’s just for kids! Don’t look at it too deeply!” That argument is complete and utter malarkey. First of all, can you think of any other industry where “It’s for kids” excuses poorer quality? (Who cares what’s in that Happy Meal burger, it’s just for kids!) Second, stories of all kinds are vital to us, and I do not mean in a romanticized sappy defense-of-the-arts way either. We have evolved to tell stories as a survival mechanism. Our species learns not only from personal experience, but also from the experience of those around us. The story of the man who went into a tiger cave and got eaten has simply evolved into the story of the man who arrived at work drunk and got fired. Third and finally, as I mentioned before, prejudice and tolerance are important issues, and the margin of error in delivering messages about them is very slight. For all these reasons combined, I assert that if Nickelodeon wants to play with the grown-ups, then it deserves to be judged as such. With that, let’s dive into Bunsen is a Beast.

The premise of the show revolves around Bunsen, the first beast to attend a human school. At school, he meets a boy named Mikey, who wants to welcome and befriend Bunsen. He also meets the hall monitor named Amanda, who is convinced that Bunsen is dangerous and should be kicked out of school. With Amanda, we get our first major problem in the show. She literally voices out her train of thought as “Beasts are different, and different is bad, therefore beasts are bad!” That’s not how racists and other hatemongers think; they try to logic out their prejudice based on evidence. The evidence is faulty and the logic fallacious, but the fact of the matter is that they still try to rationalize. Cartoony dialogue like this is not acceptable in a show dealing with bigger ideas. If we’re going to equip kids to encounter individuals who harbor discriminatory values, we need to tell kids where those values actually come from. On a similar note, look at this picture of Amanda:

She has pale sickly skin, and with her braces she speaks with a strong lisp, to the point that she spits as she talks. In fact, in one episode everyone joins a team against her in dodgeball, leaving her alone on her side of the court. It would almost seem like she’s a victim of bullying herself! That would make for an interesting character: demonstrate that the perpetrator of bullying may in fact be a victim, showing the cycle that violence can take. However, it’s made very clear that we are not supposed to feel any sympathy for her. In that case I would suggest that if you’re going to eschew any shades of grey from your morality, then at least don’t confuse the audience about who’s in the right and who’s in the wrong!

At the same time, we don’t know why beasts have never been in a human school before, or why they’ve never commingled in the past. A reporter brings up the last time a beast tried to comingle in human society, and the show cuts to a clip that shows a Godzilla-like beast rampaging in a city, until it’s explained to us that that was only a movie in-universe. What could have been a very important and meaningful piece of worldbuilding got reduced to a cheap cutaway gag with one line. Right there, in fact, is one of my biggest issues with Bunsen is a Beast: thoughtful and meaningful writing constantly gets shafted so that they can throw in some zany idea or unfunny joke. As a result, we know nearly nothing about this world and the general social patterns that exist. I’m not saying we need a grand treatise on the state of civilization, but at least some hints about what their world is like! This would normally be a nitpick that I could pass off, except that the show is trying to talk about prejudice. You can’t talk about human/beast discrimination without telling us the context of where that discrimination comes from! Zootopia opens up with exactly that: predators used to eat prey, until they evolved and came together in (relative) peace to form civilization. From there, the dynamics and mindset of each character can be approximated. Bunsen is a Beast fails to do anything resembling that, and is greatly impaired because of it.

Good grief, all this complaining and I haven’t even gotten into a specific episode yet! Well, besides the crossover, I watched two other episodes of Bunsen. One of them was the opener, “Bunsen is a Beast!”, which introduced our main characters and the premise. In this first episode, Amanda overhears Bunsen saying he can’t eat beets or he’ll turn into a monster. So of course, she spikes his water with beets, and when he drinks it he turns into a huge monster that rampages through the city and tries to eat Mikey. The plot gives animators an excuse to make all kinds of kooky designs for Bunsen’s transformation, but I fail to see how this relates to anything from real life. Sure, in Zootopia the Night Howler device doesn’t correlate to anything contemporary, but it can be loosely compared to the 1933 Reichstag arson (a ruler trying to paint opponents as dangerous in order to cement his/her own power). Bunsen’s beet problem can’t really be compared to anything. The closest analogy I can draw is certain religions forbidding the consumption of various foods, and that’s clearly a poor analogy because they don’t turn into rampaging monsters!

But, “Bunsen is a Beast!” didn’t frustrate nearly as much as “Bearly Acceptable Behavior”, which I found completely unacceptable altogether. It starts with the teacher telling the class that in honor of Mikey’s open-minded acceptance of Bunsen the beast, the week would be dedicated as “Mikey’s Open-Minded Acceptance of Bunsen the Beast Week”. Mikey is subsequently rewarded with a massage chair, a crown, a scepter and a cash check for $3,700—all within two minutes.

I am not even kidding.

Where do I begin with this? People aren’t going to hang banners praising you for being tolerant (except perhaps on Tumblr). You won’t get a crown or a massage chair or a check. At best, people will shrug and say “So? You’re doing what you should be doing.” Diversity isn’t a ride in a massage chair. It’s a constant work in progress, and it can be hard: being in a group with others who have different worldviews and different values than yours can make it hard to work sometimes. Conflict erupts, and some people will shout that it’s not worth it. Despite bumps in the road, though, having diversity in any kind of project or decision-making team will lead to an outcome that is of higher quality and better received by all. That’s what we should teach kids, not that they’re going to get financial incentives for being tolerant of others!

But this isn’t the central conflict of the episode. In honor of “Mikey’s Open-Minded Acceptance of Bunsen the Beast Week” (I hate having to say that), the class is assigned to befriend someone they wouldn’t normally associate with. Ignoring that delightful bit of wording, everyone presents their friends, culminating in Bunsen bringinga wild grizzly bear into the classroom. Not a cartoon anthropomorphized bear, a legitimate in-universe wild bear. Bunsen says that he normally lives in the woods “eating berries and documentary filmmakers.” Amanda sees the opportunity to get Bunsen kicked out. Let me clarify: Amanda, the villain, plans to have a man-eating bear removed from a classroom full of children and punish the student who brought the bear in. This is the “evil plot” we’re supposed to root against. There’s a point where she yells at the teacher, “As a responsible teacher, you need to expel Bunsen and his bear!” And… yeah, she would actually be correct! Now, they could have easily fixed this. Make the bear very clearly not a threat, don’t have him roar like a savage beast when he first enters the classroom, and then we may sympathize with it and Bunsen more. But oh no, they needed that HILARIOUS (read: groan-inducing) gag about him eating documentary filmmakers. That’s worth completely subverting the premise of the episode, right?!

I apologize that I’ve gotten so heated in this article. I’m a twenty-one year old man ranting about a cartoon, how sad. But this show just genuinely makes me angry. What’s so frustrating about it is that it could in fact teach the lessons it’s trying to teach! With “Bunsen is a Beast!”, just make it so that Bunsen gets sick or otherwise punished if he eats beets, instead of making him a monster. In “Bearly Acceptable Behavior”, make the bear actually docile. Instead, Nickelodeon is content to sacrifice proper writing for the sake of gags that are not even funny, and you know what? If this had just been another Spongebob Squarepants or The Fairly Oddparents, I wouldn’t be this angry. I’d be disappointed, but not angry. What angers me is that this show is nothing but a sad attempt to say “Hey! We care about prejudice and tolerance!” when Nickelodeon clearly does not. If they gave a damn about these issues, they would take the time to write it at least coherently. As far as Bunsen is a Beast is concerned, I’d rather have ten more seasons of Spongebob languishing from series rot than have a second season of Bunsen exposed to children. Nickelodeon… leave the social commentary to the professionals, will you?

David Gouldthorpe is a junior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He can be reached at dgouldthorpe@cornellsun.com.

]]>http://cornellsun.com/2017/03/22/nickelodeon-tries-to-join-the-tolerance-bandwagon-and-fails-spectacularly/feed/0One of The Saddest Stories in Animationhttp://cornellsun.com/2017/03/12/one-of-the-saddest-stories-in-animation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
http://cornellsun.com/2017/03/12/one-of-the-saddest-stories-in-animation/#commentsSun, 12 Mar 2017 21:58:18 +0000http://cornellsun.com/?p=1203862Let me preface my column with a countdown of the saddest stories in animation:

Littlefoot saying goodbye to his dying mother in The Land Before Time.

Carl and Ellie’s life story unfolding at the beginning of Up.

The demise of Nickelodeon

I’ve written about Nickelodeon and its downfall before, but the issue came back to the forefront of my mind with a big event that got hyped up: Nickelodeon has recently put together the first Nicktoons crossover in over a decade! When I was little, I remember when The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and The Fairly Oddparents crossed over in The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour. That was kind of a big deal for me. I mean, two of my favorite cartoons were meeting in an hour-long special? That’s the kind of hype that eight-year-old me could get behind! So, of course my curiosity got piqued when I heard that Nickelodeon was giving another crossover a go. The episode is called “Beast of Friends”, a cross between Fairly Oddparents and newcomer Bunsen is a Beast. It premiered March 4. I gave it a watch.

It was terrible.

But that got me thinking, what about The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour? Was it actually better, or just pure nostalgia that I recalled? I gave it another watch, and while it wasn’t as amazingly spectacular as I remembered, it still held up pretty well. So what did it do right that “Beast of Friends” did wrong?

On the surface, the visual styles aren’t played around with as much. Jimmy Neutron was made using CGI, while Fairly Oddparents was hand-drawn. It was fun to see their respective protagonists in other shows’ animation styles. By contrast, Flash software is used for both Bunsen is a Beast and, as of this season, Fairly Oddparents. There’s not as much opportunity to have fun with one character going over to another universe and looking different. They attempt a few jokes over character designs, but they don’t really land. However, these jokes aren’t the most important difference between the crossovers. So what if we lose a few gags based on flat characters considering themselves “bulgy” in CGI, or CG characters lamenting their lack of depth? It really has little impact on the narrative as a whole.

Unfortunately, the narrative doesn’t really work either for “Beast of Friends”. The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour isn’t Citizen Kane or The Lord of the Rings, but it still manages to tell a coherent story: Timmy Turner is desperate for a science fair project and so he wishes himself into the best laboratory in the universe. It turns out to be Jimmy Neutron’s lab, and Jimmy accidentally takes Timmy’s emergency return pen and poofs himself into Timmy’s room. Timmy’s love for video games causes him to download a violent program into Jimmy’s robotic dog, who proceeds to rampage around the city. Meanwhile, Jimmy’s technological prowess lets him create a teleporter to get home, until the crazed teacher Mr. Crocker steals it to invade Fairy World. Both worlds now have a crisis to face that’s unlike anything they’ve had to deal with before. Now, contrast that with “Beast of Friends”: Bunsen the beast wants to celebrate his Friendiversary with Cosmo the fairy… and that’s essentially the whole story. The villains of both shows “team up”, but don’t really do anything special. See the difference here? Power Hour takes advantage of both worlds’ unique challenges and assets to escalate the conflict in both shows involved. “Beast of Friends” is essentially just characters fooling around and twiddling their thumbs, essentially wasting the opportunities that they have available

Speaking of characters, I feel like “Beast of Friends” shot itself in the foot from its premise. Cosmo and Bunsen are friends and want to see each other. How did they meet? At a convention. Do we get to see them meet? Do we get to see what bonded them together? Nope, but we get an unfunny mess of a joke about the word “convention.” In Power Hour, the conflict comes from two different universes meeting and trying to figure their way around each other. Timmy gets thrust into Jimmy’s life as a boy genius and vice versa. Is it contrived and a bit implausible that they each get mistaken as each other? Well, yes, but it’s still interesting to see and makes for some good humor. “Beast of Friends” doesn’t get the luxury of having such a viable source of conflict and humor for the picking. Could it still have a good plot? Sure! Bunsen and Cosmo are friends, but let’s say when they introduce their respective families to each other, disagreements erupt, putting their friendship to the test. There, in one minute I put together a better idea for a crossover. There’s no friction between the characters to any degree, except when the villains pop out from behind a bush, and even then the villains are so incompetent that they might as well just not be there.

From here on out, I veer more from the mechanics of storytelling into more subjective territory, but the results are the same. Power Hour had a lot of jokes, and while I didn’t find them all funny, I got several laughs at least. Not once did “Beast of Friends” make me laugh. There was one gag, already unfunny the first time, that repeated five times over the course of the twenty-minute episode. At the fourth repetition, even the characters involved said “This is getting old,” and then they used it again. The pacing didn’t work; at about halfway through, I remember thinking to myself “Nothing’s even happened yet! Get on with it!” The comedic timing is off, the narrative timing is off. It’s just a mess that doesn’t need to exist.

So why does it exist? Well, I have a strong hunch: I suspect that Fairly Oddparents is going to have the plug pulled soon. This season, the show began airing new episodes on Nicktoons Network instead of Nickelodeon proper, which has historically signified the coming death of a Nicktoon series. In addition, Bunsen is a Beast is a new show. And I mean, a very new show. It’s been around for less than three weeks and this much-hyped crossover was only the seventh episode to air. The whole thing reeks of an attempt to transfer the audience of Fairly Oddparents to Bunsen. Did it work? Well, it got me to watch a couple episodes of Bunsen, and boy do I have a LOT to say about the show. Keep an eye out for a future column with my very vocal thoughts about it. As for this crossover, “Beast of Friends” is just another inane production from a company that has very little soul left beating in its corporate heart.

David Gouldthorpe is a junior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He can be reached at dgouldthorpe@cornellsun.com.

]]>http://cornellsun.com/2017/03/12/one-of-the-saddest-stories-in-animation/feed/2Santa Clarita Diet Satisfies the Appetitehttp://cornellsun.com/2017/02/21/santa-clarita-diet-satisfies-the-appetite/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
http://cornellsun.com/2017/02/21/santa-clarita-diet-satisfies-the-appetite/#respondTue, 21 Feb 2017 22:26:32 +0000http://cornellsun.com/?p=1116983When I first heard that my hometown was getting its own Netflix Original series, I was amused but thoroughly skeptical. What on earth was in Santa Clarita that could support a genuinely good show? I expected something in the mold of 90210 (though a step down — after all, Santa Clarita is quite a bit removed from the wealth of Beverly Hills), but when the Santa Clarita Diet trailers were released, I was both confused and intrigued to see that the show was actually about… zombies?

Turns out that’s not quite the best description. Eric, the show’s geeky next-door expert on the supernatural says he prefers not to use that term as it has a “negative connotation.” Even after I knew it would involve cannibalism, I underestimated its potential. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Santa Clarita Diet is one of the best shows I’ve watched, I will definitely be back for season two. For a brand new show trying to get its footing, season one did its job well. The show centers on the Hammonds — Sheila (Drew Barrymore), Joel (Timothy Olyphant) and Abby (Liv Hewson), a seemingly normal family living in Santa Clarita, California, and the chaos of their lives after Sheila mysteriously becomes undead. The cause of her condition seems at first a little incredulous and cheesy — she vomits what seems to be the entire contents of her stomach and then some, including a small red organ – but then again, the premise of the show itself is equally so. From then on, the Hammonds’ greatest problem is how to sate Sheila’s appetite for humans without being caught by their policemen neighbors. With help from Eric (Skyler Gisondo) and his vast knowledge about all things unhuman, they’re able to live their extraordinarily unusual lives (mostly) under the radar in an otherwise usual town.

Though Drew Barrymore’s casting is primarily what drew attention to the series before its premiere, Timothy Olyphant’s portrayal of the confused, yet supportive and loving, husband Joel surprisingly outshined her. He’s eccentric and sarcastic in a way that provides much of the show’s comedy and his maddeningly logical approach to a completely illogical situation keeps the show moving forward. Of course, this is not to say that Drew Barrymore’s performance was subpar. In fact, her lighthearted portrayal of a character with such a deadly appetite makes the genre label “dark comedy” seem almost inappropriate. She’s bouncy, she’s fun and she holds the show together — the type of humor she provides just doesn’t necessarily elicit laughter. And while the adults’ adventures call for the audience to truly suspend disbelief, Abby and Eric ground the show just a notch, providing a twist on the stereotypical normal-adults-with-crazy-kids storyline. They’re mostly-average high school students with bigger problems at home, something many teens can relate to, and they’re navigating the mayhem of adolescence the best they can.

The only thing that seems to be greatly lacking is an overarching plot throughout season one. The search for a way to satisfy Sheila’s appetite understandably establishes a foundation for the series, and season one was likely written to set up future seasons. I just can’t help but wonder where the writers can take this moving forward. Beyond the show’s premise, what more could the Hammonds have to deal with? After all, the novelty of having an undead character can only last so long.

Though I was initially quite skeptical of how Netflix would be able to pull off Santa Clarita Diet, I was pleasantly surprised. I began watching only to see if I could recognize any of the settings, as it was filmed on location, but three or four episodes in I found myself clicking “next episode” because it was genuinely entertaining. Its subtle references to the nuances of Santa Clarita culture made me chuckle (weed, realtors and Magic Mountain were the main ones). Though it’s not a standout, it’s quite well-balanced between fantasy and reality and full of potential.

Verdict: perhaps not rewatch-worthy, but definitely binge-worthy.

Natalie Fung is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at nf238@cornell.edu.

]]>http://cornellsun.com/2017/02/21/santa-clarita-diet-satisfies-the-appetite/feed/0Legion Flies above the Tropes of the Superhero Genrehttp://cornellsun.com/2017/02/12/legion-flies-above-the-tropes-of-the-superhero-genre/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
http://cornellsun.com/2017/02/12/legion-flies-above-the-tropes-of-the-superhero-genre/#respondMon, 13 Feb 2017 00:08:33 +0000http://cornellsun.com/?p=1078969Legion already separates itself from other superhero shows through its use of a largely character-driven story and departure from long-winded exposition. The first episode takes its audience on a visually stunning journey as it diverges from typical superhero tropes and commits to its unique style.

The series follows the journey of David Haller (Dan Stevens), a young man being treated in a mental hospital after being diagnosed with schizophrenia and attempting suicide. The causes of his illness are vague as he is also a mutant with telepathic and telekinetic powers. While he is undoubtedly able to move things and cause serious damage with his mind, it is unclear whether the voices in his head are entirely hallucinations or if they are a result of his mind-reading abilities.

During his time in the mental hospital, David Haller spends most of his time with Lenny (played brilliantly by Aubrey Plaza) until he meets Syd (Rachel Keller) who becomes his girlfriend. Their relationship is complicated by Syd’s complete avoidance of human contact. Syd is finally released from the mental hospital, but as she is leaving, David kisses her, causing them to switch bodies as a result of Syd’s mutant powers. Overwhelmed by David’s abilities, Syd kills Lenny and traps all the patients of the mental hospital in their rooms. Meanwhile, David leaves in Syd’s body, safe until their bodies switch again. David is captured by the government and while he thinks that they’re interrogating him to find out what happened on the day of Lenny’s death, they monitor his powers, speculating that David may be the most powerful mutant they know. Ultimately Syd and two other mutants, who David saw at the hospital the day of the incident, break David out of the facility, leaving us to wonder where they go from here.

Legion stands out from other superhero shows in its narrative strength and unique tone. Instead of wasting time on backstories, Legion places a larger emphasis on developing the plot. The first scene jumps right in, showing how David deals with his powers through his childhood and adolescence, ultimately ending up in a mental hospital. This quick, mostly visual introduction puts the audience inside of David’s head, provides a greater understanding of the character and saves the show from clunky explanations. The show focuses on how David deals with the aftermath of his power’s destruction rather than the development of his powers, avoiding an extremely overused superhero trope. This keeps the plot moving and human-focused. While the character’s personalities have been shaped by their powers, they are not necessarily defining. By giving David a diagnosis of schizophrenia, David’s struggle becomes more ambiguous and universal than if he were dealing with a more stereotypical power.

Legion commits to a unique aesthetic and tone that mirrors David’s plight and brings its audience into David’s perspective. The show has a trippy quality to it. Everything about the sets, the costumes and the music is slightly off-kilter, suggesting that the creators may not be showing the events exactly as they occurred, but rather David’s perception of these events. Legion excels through its effective use of ambiguity and uncertainty. Because David has schizophrenia and cannot see the difference between reality and his delusions, we are shown the story through an unreliable narrator, and the show’s aesthetic quality further emphasizes this vagueness.

The show constantly blurs the line of what is real and what is imagined. It’s unclear to what extent the voices David hears and his skewed perception of reality is the result of his powers. Some of the voices are likely the effect of his telepathic powers, as Syd appears to him in a vision explaining that she’s coming to rescue him, an event that unfolds in reality. Some of his visions, however, are delusions of some sort. Lenny appears to David after her death, making it impossible for him to be reading her mind or receiving a message from her. The use of ambiguity in storytelling moves away from a straightforward plot and leaves much more to interpretation. It also adds a layer of psychological suspense and thrill. The audience, like David, can never be quite sure what is real.

Legion’s pilot is a strong start to a series with a lot of potential. If Legion stays committed to its style and tone, it has the chance to rise to a higher tier than current superhero shows.

Brynn Richter is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at ber65@cornell.edu